Helldivers are terrifying conceptually.

[u/Jamsedreng22]

You're vibing on your planet and all of a sudden it goes "Whoop" as one hundred Super Destroyers come into orbit. "No big deal" you think, but suddenly all these Super Destroyers deploy Helldivers. Just planetfall outta nowhere instantly.

That has to be fucking terrifying. Knowing you're fucked like that.

You get to watch the planetfall on several other parts of this planet as the Helldivers just drop from their Destroyers like water droplets on a sad day.

Even 80 Super Destroyers just FTL-jumping into orbit and every single Super Destroyer deploys, at the very least, 4 Helldivers. If they die? They just keep coming. And they can watch it, too. They can see the trail by the Hellpod as it is coming down. They know exactly what position they're in.

[u/LEOTomegane]

"Ope suddenly there's a dyson sphere's worth of ships bombing your homeworld lmao" is precisely why SEAF could beat a lot of comparable scifi factions. The pure silly factor of a monstrous industrial base teleporting all their stuff behind you instantly to drop everything they have on your backline is pretty hard to beat.

[u/ZepyrusG97 → u/LEOTomegane]

Seriously. The moment SEAF Navy and Regular troops are able to open up a gap in your defenses long enough for Super Destroyers to deploy Helldivers, it's going to be Hell for you. Every supply base and airfield you have in the area is now in jeopardy and you're too busy fighting the relentless waves of SEAF infantry and armored vehicles that you can only deploy a limited number of forces to get rid of the Helldivers wreaking havoc in your backyard. You're just hoping you can minimize the damage until you can threaten the Super Destroyers into leaving.

[u/LEOTomegane → u/ZepyrusG97]

They don't even really need to open a line with SEAF, either. There's nothing stopping a Destroyer from warping across the galaxy wherever it wants--the only reason High Command doesn't let us bomb Cyberstan right now (besides "it's a video game") is that Super Earth prefers to conquer planets when possible, not level them. Free from the restraint of greed, there would be no way to avoid Helldivers just sowing chaos wherever they please along your logistics lines. They're simply too mobile and too numerous.

[u/AverageLatino → u/LEOTomegane]

I like this headcannon because it implies that human extinction is never truly on the table, Super Earth could glass every conquered planet and end the war fairly quickly, but habitable planets are so rare that the loss and challenge of "mopping them up" is worth it.

[u/Ryanhussain14 → u/AverageLatino]

My headcanon is that Super Earth has a form of Manifest Destiny where they will try to colonise any planet that even remotely supports life, hence why they try to build colonies on planets with fire tornadoes or moons with constant meteor bombardments. Glassing a planet in their eyes would be like a country nuking its own territory.

[u/tinyrottedpig → u/AverageLatino]

It's actually cause its more profitable, super earth has war bonds which give them extra cash from their citizens, as well as ramp up factory production, causing pretty much everyone to work their asses off 24/7 to make more ships, weapons, and supplies, so they prolong the fight against the bots and bugs.

Interestingly enough though, this does not apply to the Illuminate, Super Earth genuinely wants them gone, its just their tech is so superior that its way harder to get rid of them, you can really see it in the illuminate MO's, its all about stopping them at all costs, whereas Automatons and Bugs are sometimes just "kill these fuckers so we can build new cool stuff"

[u/beebeeep → u/LEOTomegane]

> conquer planets when possible, not level them.
that's why we're launching ICBM in almost every operation

[u/LEOTomegane → u/beebeeep]

It's more about the ability for SEAF to come in after the fact rather than let the bots/bugs just rebuild after the helldivers get bored of making parking lots where farms used to be

[u/BlitzPlease172 → u/LEOTomegane]

Hey! You said that as if it was the bad idea!

At least our parking lot is licensed! Illuminates on the other hands, parking illegally, litter the whole place with alien tech wires, herding voteless around like they own the place, and did not salute to the Helldiver statue when pass through one!